Eskimo Nebula

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Eskimo Nebula

Photograph courtesy NASA/Andrew Fruchter (STScI)

The Eskimo Nebula got its name because the astronomer who discovered it in 1787 thought it looked like a person's head surrounded by a parka hood. This highly detailed image taken in 2000 by the Hubble Space Telescope, however, reveals a much more complex structure, one which astrophysicists are still trying to explain.